There are moments in our lives when the smallest event can be a seed that gestates and grows slowly over time until we find ourselves transformed. Such an event occurred in New York City in 1974 when I visited Swami Satchidananda’s yoga studio on West End Avenue. In those days yoga was a small movement that had evolved out of a growing interest in an alternative to the confusion that had been the sixties. The class took place in the small living room that had been converted into an uptown satellite of the downtown Integral Yoga Institute, The room was only big enough for six students and the teacher.
I will never forget the feeling of calm and well being that completely enveloped me at the end of the yoga class as I returned to the street. My body was so utterly relaxed and my mind had opened up to an awareness that was absolutely new and unexpected. I didn’t know I was capable of being present with such an expansive experience of peace. The space I inhabited in that moment seemed to be like a parallel universe as I watched the cars and people whizzing by and listened to the hum and buzz of the city.
Of course, after a while I went back to what I considered to be my usual self, as anxious and buzzing as the traffic in the street. But, I stayed with the practice of yoga and meditation. After years of practice I began to realize that this place of well being was not a temporary condition but my natural place of being. I began to recognize all the anxieties and fears and stresses and judgments for what they really are. They are the temporary, superficial conditions. The feeling of calm and well being is not a parallel universe but our universal place of being.
Relaxing our bodies, opening our hearts and minds to this space is what, I believe, we all have the capacity to do. My teaching, my practice, and my therapies are dedicated to helping you realize your place of calm and well being.
Open Space, Open Mind 